Manually controlled cloth laying machine



United States Patent Inventors Edward M. Merrill North Bellmore; Conrad A. Costlgaln, Richmond Hill, New York Appl. No. 753,389

Filed Aug. 19, 1968 Patented Nov. 17, 1970 Assignee Cutting Room Appliances Corporation New York, New York a corporation of New York MANUALLY CONTROLLED CLOTH LAYING MACHINE 6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 270/31, 318/443 Int. Cl 1365b 29/46,

l-l02p 7/00 Field of Search 270/30, 31;

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,039,029 6/1962 Spafford 318/17 3,094,319 6/1963 Deichman 270/31 3,241,019 3/1966 Gross 318/17X 3,400,927 9/1968 Martin et al. 270/31 Primary Examiner-Eugene R. Capozio Assistant Examiner-Paul V. Williams Attorney-Charles E. Temko ABSIRACT: A manually controlled electrically powered cloth laying machine, including a trigger operated rheostat mounted on the carriage element thereof enabling the carriage to be walked under power by an operator. Controls for carriage speed, direction of movement, engagement or disengagement of a positively driven feed roller are incorporated in a single location to be readily manipulated by a single hand. Gravity positioned wrap roller means is provided for accumulating slack to be relieved at the time of formation of a fold by conventional fold forming means.

Patented Nov. 17, 1970 3,540,720

carriage is moving.

MANUALLY CONTROLLED CLOTH LAYING MACHINE This invention relates generally to the field of cloth laying machines adapted to spread a plurality of layers of cloth or other planar flexible material on a horizontal surface for subsequent cutting, and more particularly to an improved manually controlled electrically powered device, offering the advantages of manual control to the operator, while relieving him of the normally accompanying physical exertion necessary to move the carriage along the cloth laying table between first and second limits of-travel.

In recent years, considerable advancement has been made in the development of powered carriage elements which employ an electric motor to drive the carriage wheels resulting in movement of the carriage along the table. Switch means have been provided to reverse the direction of the carriage at the end of each lay", and such devices have usually included a feed roller on the carriage which is driven by movement of the carriage over the table to provide for substantially tensionless deposition of each succeeding web. With such devices, it is possible to set the device in operation, and leave it relatively untended until an'entire bolt of cloth has been laid upon the table.

Such substantially automatic operation requires careful prior inspection of the cloth being dispensed, since it is not normally possible to examine the cloth at the time it is laid on the table, and the stopping of the machine to correct a defect in the cloth interferes with continuous automatic operation. However, many types of fabrics are normally manufactured with a considerable number of flaws, so as to made impractical prior inspection of the cloth. As the cloth is laid, and defects discovered, it is the normal custom to unfold a cutting pattern on the uppermost ply of cloth to determine whether the defect falls within an area which will ultimately form a finished piece of a garment, or within an area which will ultimately become scrap. In the case of the latter, cloth-may be continued to be laid without interruption. In the case of the former, the carriage element must be stopped, the defect cut fromthe cloth, fresh cloth overlapped, and then the cloth laying operation may proceed.

Because of widespread use of fabrics of the above described type, hand controlled cloth laying machines have continued to be used. However, with increase in size of cloth bolts, and increased inertia forces to be contended by the operator, the difficulties of physically pushing the carriage have increased, along with the difficulty in stopping the same in the middle of a traversing movement over the table upon the discovery ofa flaw.

It is therefore among the principal objects'of the present invention to provide an improved manually controlled electrically powered cloth lying machine, in which the above disadvantages have been substantially eliminated.

Another object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved manually controlled cloth laying machine carriage having electrically powered means for moving the same over a cloth laying table, in which the speed of movement may-be controlled by an operator walking alongside the carriage as the same moves.

A further object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved cloth laying machine carriage possessed of the above advantage having positively driven feed roller means which may be selectively disengaged by the operator as the A further object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved cloth machine carriage possessed of the above advantages which may be reversed in direction of movement at any point intermediate the two limits of the path of motion thereof.

A further object of the invention lies in the provision of improved control structure which may be readily incorporated into existing prior art devices with a minimum of modification thereof.

Still another object of the invention lies in the provision of improved cloth laying machine structure in which the cost of fabrication may be of a reasonably low order, thereby permitting consequent wide sale, distribution and use.

Yet another object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved wrap roller maintained in position with respect to the positively driven feed roller by the action of gravity to accumulate a small amount of slack in the web of cloth being dispensed, and which may be moved upon the occurrence of tension in the web to provide such slack in the web for the formation of a fold in the cloth, when'the device is used in conjunction with conventional cloth fold retaining means, sons to maintain substantially tensionless feeding throughout a complete cloth laying operation.

These objects and features, as well as other incidental ends and advantages, will more fully appear in the progress of the following disclosure, and be pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing, to which reference will be made in the specification, similar reference characters have been employed to designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the operation of certain control elements forming a part of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a first position of a positive drive feed roll wrap means during operation of the device.

FIG. 5 is a similar schematic view showing the position of the wrap means upon the formation of a fold in the web of cloth being dispensed.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary end elevational view. In accordance with the invention, the device, generally indicated by reference character 10, is illustrated in FIG. 1 in the drawing, and includes a table 11, a carriage element 12, a pair of catcher elements 13, carriage movement control means 14, turntable means 15, cloth roll support means I6 supporting a cloth roll 17 in position to dispense a web of cloth 18 over an idler roller 19 to a positively driven roller 20, whereby a vertical segment 21 of the web may fall in substantially tensionless form to a cloth fold forming means 22. The positive drive roller 20 is selectively interconnected with respect to the carriage by engagement means 23. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,094,319 granted to Walter Deichmann, June 18, I963, and assigned to the same assignee as the instant application for a disclosure of the details of the carriage element 12, turn table means 15, cloth roll supported means 16, driven roller 20 and positive drive engagement means 23. The catcher element 13 may be of any suitable type, as for example that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,996 granted to Emmanuel Theodosiou, Dec. 1 1, 1962, and also assigned to the same assignee as the instant application. The cloth fold forming means 22 may be ofa type disclosed in U .5. Pat. No. 3,14l ,665 granted to Abner l. Gilbert, July 21, 1964, again, assigned to the same assignee as the instant application. The carriage control means 14 may include details of struc ture disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,005, granted Dec. 7, 1965, to Gerard J. Wendellten, again, assigned to the same assignee as the instant application. As the above structure is known in the art, and forms no part of the present invention, it need not be further considered herein.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the carriage element 12 includes a large housing 25, and a relatively smaller housing 26 connected thereto, which support first and second manual control elements 27 and 28, respectively.

The first manual control element27 includes a bracket member 31 which mounts a grip member 32 in turn pivotally mounting a trigger member 33 which is of a length sufficient to be engaged by all of the fingers of the operator. Interconnected to the relatively free end of the trigger member 33 is an elongated rod 34 which projects into the housing 25, and engages resilient linkage 35 (FIG. 3) controlling movement of the wiper 36 of a rheostat 37, through which current powering the carriage element 12 passes.

The second manual control element 28 is mounted on the small housing 26, and includes a similar bracket member 38,

grip member 39, trigger member 40, and rod 41 interconnected to linkage 42 also controlling movement of the wiper 36. From a consideration of FIG. 3, it will be apparent that the speed of movement of the carriage may be controlled from either side ofth'e housing 25.

The second control element 28 also includes a clutch actuating rod (not shown) connected to a lever member 44 at the inner end thereof. A median point 47 is pivotally mounted on a bracket 48 (see FIG. 2) mounted on the housing 26. Another bracket 49 is provided with a pintle 50 supporting a locking member 51 having a recess 52 engaging the lever member 44 to maintain the driven roller in engaged position, as shown in the above mentioned Deichmann US Pat. No. 3,094,319. The free end 53 is at all times in the proximity of the grip member 39.

As best seen in FIG. 6, a third bracket 54 mounts a rocker or toggle switch 55, which determines the direction of movement of the carriage, once the means powering the same has been energized. A second bracket 56 mounts a similar switch 7 operating in a similar manner.

The driven roller 20 has positioned adjacent thereto on the carriage element 12 a pair of mounting brackets 60 in turn supporting a fixed rod 61. The rod in turn supports pivotally mounted brackets 62 of generally semicircular configuration, each including a fixed end and a relatively free end 64. A transversely extending wrap bar 65 is supported by the free end 64 of each bracket 62 for movement through an arcuate path of motion about the axis of the rod 61. One of the brackets 62 mounts counter weight means 66 such that the wrap bar 65 willnormally be urged to its lowermost position. As best seen in FIG. 4, under the actionof gravity, and assisted by the clockwise rotation of the driven roller, the bar 65 will normally be urged to its lowermost position, wherein substantially one half of the surface of the driven roller is in contact with the web of cloth 18 being dispensed. This position will be maintained irrespective of the direction of movement of the carriage, owing to the fact that the direction of rotation of the driven roller is independent of said direction. When the car riage reaches one limit of its path of travel, and a fold is formed, a small amount of additional material is required to make the fold and maintain continued tensionless spreading as the carriage reverses direction and commences movement away from the newly formed fold. This small amount of additional material is provided by the pivoting action of the bar 65 to the position shown in FIG. 5, which being relatively delicately counter balanced pivots easily away from the surface ofthe roller.

Upon resumption of the rotation of the driven roller 20, the bar 65 tends to return to the position shown in FIG. 4, and a small amount of slack in the web 18 is again formed for use upon the formation of the next succeeding fold.

It will be understood that this action is dependent entirely upon additional tension caused by operation of the fold forming means, and will occur only when the carriage has been brought to a stop at the time of the making of the fold, as distinguished from structures well known in the art, and exemplified' in US. Pat. No. 2,92l,786 granted to Walter Deichmann et al. Jan. 19, 1960, wherein movement of the wrap roller is controlled by the occurrence of tension while the carriage is in motion, which movement alters the amount of surface contacted by the web on the driven roller to increase or decrease feeding.

We wish it to be understood that we do not consider the invention limited to the precise details of structure shown and set forth in this specification, for obvious modifications will occur to those skilled in the art which the invention pertains.

We claim:

1. In a cloth laying machine carriage for use with a cloth laying table, said carriage including electric motor means for moving said carriage in either of two directions over said table, and having means for automatically reversing the direction of movement at an end ofa path of travel, improved control means comprising: a manually engageable grip mounted upon said carriage, a trigger member movably connected to said grip, electrical rests ance means connected in series with said motor means, and resilient linkage means interconnecting said trigger member and said resistance means; whereby current supplied to said motor means may be varied as a function of manual displacement of said trigger means to move said carriage in a direction determined by said reversing means.

2. Structure in accordance with claim 1, including a driven roller on said carriage, clutch means interconnecting said driven roller with said motor means, and lever means for engaging and disengaging said clutch means positioned for pivotal movement in the proximity of said trigger member.

3. Structure in accordance with claim 2, including means for latching said last mentioned lever clutch-engaged position.

4. Structure in accordance with claim 1, including a second manually engageable grip mounted upon said carriage at a location remote from said first-mentioned grip, said grip having a second trigger member movably mounted thereon, said trigger member being interconnected to said resilient linkage means. 

